general seized a pistol and shot the sergeant dead, and made his escape in the dark, through the back door, on foot. It is possible, however, that he is wounded, as another guard fired six shots at him, and the path by which he escaped was marked with blood. I then returned to Fort Deposit and recrossed the Tennessee River to capture The detachment left on north side, but found they had started toward Woodville in small, scattered bands on Monday night at 10 o'clock, having given up the hope of getting across the Tennessee. Several of Lyon's staff officers were arriving there. Lyons' force has been exaggerated all along. From the best information he entered Kentucky with 800 men and two pieces of artillery, crossed the Memphis and Charleston Railroad at Scottsborough, going south, with 350 men and one piece of artillery, and got across the river with 250 men, of whom we captured about 100. He will not give us much more trouble. My force in this expedition was 180 men. My loss was one sergeant, Arthur P. Lyon, the bravest soldier in my regiment.

W. J. PALMER,

Colonel Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.

(Copy forwarded by Thomas to Halleck, January 21, 1865.)

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTHER ALABAMA,
Huntsville, Ala., January 17, 1865.

Major B. H. POLCK,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

MAJOR: Telegraphic orders from Genera Thomas directs me to re-occupy Athens, Sulphur Trenste, and the station between Decatur and Elk River. As all the block-houses between these places have been burned, the garrisons must necessarily be much larger, until they can be rebuilt, than they were before the evacuation. I have temporarily provided garrisons for these points from troops furnished by General Wood. There are no troops under my command that are available for this purpose, my own command being barely sufficient to finish minimum garrisons for the stations on the Decatur and Stevenson road.

The general is probably aware that all the troops of this district except the four regiments of the First Brigade, Fourth Division, Twentieth Army Corps, numbering for duty about 1,430 men on last report; this is not more than a garrison for Decatur alone. There is not a cavalryman in the district, reporting to me.

General Wood informs me that he is directed to remove all the troops belonging to his corps as soon as he is ordered to march. I must therefore urgently request that re-enforcements of infantry and cavalry be sent me with as little delay as practicable. The total number of troops required for this district will be-to garrison the road from Stevenson to Decatur: At Crow Creek, an officer and 30 men; Mud Creek, a company of 50 men; at Bellefonte, an officer and 30 men; at Larkinsville and station at Santa Creek, 100 infantry and 50 cavalry; at Paint Rock and Gurley's Tank, until block-houses are completed, 80 infantry and 20 cavalry; bridge over Hurricane Creek, an officer and 30 men; Brownsborough, 100 infantry and 150 cavalry-this is an important station at all times, and particularly so now, from the fact that the guerrillas under Mead, Johnson, and Whitecotton, some 500 strong, occupy the district-included within the headwaters of Paint Rock and Flint Rivers; Huntsville, 350 infantry and 150 cavalry; Branch of Indiana Creek, near